The Jon Lymonday Teaser: Free sample of A Killing Spree and Some Bloody Zombies

Another freebie from Jon Lymon, this time a free excerpt from the Jake Rodwell Zombie Series Part 2, A Killing Spree and Some Bloody Zombies:

Rodwell saw the pinpoints of distant headlights. That sense he’d had when danger was near reappeared, infecting Rodwell's gut. A strange, unwelcome odour infected the air.

The hunters.

He looked around. He hadn’t hobbled far from the barn.

Rodwell remembered the gun cabinet that Atkins had emptied. Above it, hung rusting farming tools, vicious if used incorrectly, which was exactly what Rodwell intended. He shuffled back inside the barn. Looked for the gun cabinet. Everything seemed darker, his eyesight deteriorating. He seriously doubted his ability to bend down and pick up anything from the ground without slipping a disc or fracturing a bone.

Rodwell had no idea who was hunting him. Several dozen wanted him dead for what he had done to them, for upholding the law they’d broken. He just wanted Bannen to bring him his daughter for that vital last meeting, where he would tell her how much he loved her, tell her not to mourn him, to go ahead and enjoy life without him around, to be good to her mother and well behaved, and kind to whoever replaced him. To study hard and have fun and grow up a good kid and drink moderately and not start smoking, and get a good job and stay away from zombies and not go into the police force, and just run if something or someone she didn’t feel was right was approaching.

A crunch of snow close to the barn caused Rodwell to withdraw into the shadows. His footsteps would be visible in the snow outside, Bannen’s too. A torchbeam lit the gaps in the slats of the barn walls. A lone light.

Rodwell listened to his rasping breathing and the soft thud of snow sliding off the barn roof and into the field outside as the door opened.

“Rodwell. I know you’re in here.”

Rodwell tried to place the voice. Couldn’t. A man's. Not Bannen.

He listened to each deliberate step across the barn floor.

“I've got a present for you, Rodwell. Why don’t you come on out so I can wish you a happy Christmas and a prosperous new year?”

Rodwell shifted, trying to get a view of whoever it was without surrendering his position. But it was too dark, save for the blinding beam from the torchlight.

“I hear the whole family is in town. Happy families at Christmas, isn’t that what everyone plays? Used to play it myself as a kid. The card game, you know it? Damned if I can remember the rules now. Do you remember the rules, Rodwell?”

The torchbeam explored the area where Rodwell was standing, but whoever was holding it needed to move forward for the beam to penetrate the deep shadow where Rodwell hid. 

“Ah, let’s forget the rules, eh? There’s no rules in the world of crime, is there? You either get away with it, or you get put away for it. And you’re something of an expert at the latter.”

The voice was getting louder, the steps nearer. It wouldn’t be long before the torchbeam found him.